Patna, Dec. 7: Decks have been cleared for the enrolment of about 9,000 more ex-armymen in the state police force to contain the incidents of organised crime and the Naxalite menace.

A high-level meeting at the state police headquarters chaired by additional director general of police (headquarters) P.K. Thakur today decided to enrol 8,880 retired army personnel as special auxiliary police (SAP). The process for the recruitment of SAP jawans would be done through the Danapur job sub-area headquarters of Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.

The meeting agreed to extend the age from 45 years to 47 years and also hiked the monthly remuneration of the SAP personnel from Rs 10,000 to Rs 12000. “The recruitment will be processed through the army headquarters at Danapur,” the ADG (headquarters) said, adding that the process would start from December 8.

A retired colonel of the Indian Army, who was earlier posted as a trainer with the National Security Guards, colonel R.K. Singh, were also present at the meeting. Singh, who was appointed as in-charge of the counter insurgency schools, has been asked to assist the state police in the recruitment of the ex-armymen.

At present, the state has 8,120 SAP jawans, who have been deployed in districts to contain organised crime and Naxalite violence.

Posts for SAP jawans were recently advertised by the state police headquarters. “As the ex-armymen are already trained in jungle warfare and counter insurgency, there is no need to impart them any additional training,” Thakur said, adding that the enrolled jawans would not be engaged in law and order duty.

Director-general of police Neel Mani said the state police personnel would be imparted specialised training in four counter insurgency and jungle warfare at the four proposed institutes. One of them has already made operational in Gaya, he said, adding that other schools would start functioning very soon.

The meeting also discussed at length the recruitment of policemen in the state. Sources in the state police headquarters said though the state police officials had advertised for the posts last year also, nobody turned up at the enrolment centre at Danapur. Later, the officials decided to make certain amendments in the enrolment rules and invited applications from the retired army personnel.